Pat Robertson said something else stupid and insensitive.
ROBERTSON: [S]omething happened a long time ago in Haiti and people might not want to talk about it. They were under the heel of the French. Napoleon the Third and whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, “We will serve you if you get us free from the prince.” True story. And so the devil said, “OK, it’s a deal.” They kicked the French out, the Haitians revolted and got themselves free.
But ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after the other, desperately poor. That island of Hispaniola is one island. It’s cut down the middle, on the one side is Haiti, on the other side is the Dominican Republic. The Dominican Republic is prosperous, healthy, full of resorts, etc. Haiti is in desperate poverty. Same island.
They need to have, and we need to pray for them, a great turning to God. And out of this tragedy I’m optimistic something good may come. But right now, we’re helping the suffering people and the suffering is unimaginable.
[h/t to Think Progress]
It amazes me that Republicans consistently demonstrate a willingness to show the public their lack of historical knowledge. Here Pat Robertson is pontificating about Haitian history like he has a clue, and he tells us that the Haitians won their independence ‘a long time ago’ from ‘Napoleon III or whatever.’
What does this show about Pat Robertson’s blindness? Well, the Haitian’s won their independence from Napoleon Bonaparte (also known as Napoleon the First of France). Napoleon was so frustrated by the success of the slave revolt in Haiti that he decided to give up his plans for a New World French Empire and sell the Americans the Louisiana Territory. Thus, America gained “all of present-day Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, parts of Minnesota that were west of the Mississippi River, most of North Dakota, nearly all of South Dakota, northeastern New Mexico, the portions of Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado east of the Continental Divide, and Louisiana west of the Mississippi River, including the city of New Orleans.” That’s how the Haitian ‘deal with the devil’ helped create our country. This all happened in 1803 and 1804. Napoleon was exiled to St. Helena in 1815 where he died in 1821.
Napoleon the Third wasn’t even born until four years after Haiti won its independence, and he didn’t come to power until he was elected president in 1848 (he thereafter became dictator and then king). He was a nephew of Napoleon the First, and not his son.
But Pat Robertson doesn’t care about any of that because he wants to tell us a ‘true story’ about the slaves making a deal with the devil to free them from the heel of Napoleon the Third, or whatever.
He also left out the part about the US doing everything possible to oppose the newly free Haitian slaves, and not recognizing their country for 60 or so years, because southern states didn’t want their slaves getting ideas.
If only those damned slaves had known their place, rather than consorting with Satan…
Yes, and Yglesias has more about the actual devil part of it.
Yeah, and even after we recognized it, we did everything we could to make sure they never succeeded, including helping to oust their democratically elected leader and put in our puppet. The US has fucked with Haiti for decades. It’s shameful. Now we’ll come in as saviors? I think it is bit late for that.
I still donated to Doctors without Borders, but I am ashamed of US-Haiti relations these past years.
$5 says that if this happened to an area of mostly white people that Pat Robertson would have started a prayer in seeking understanding as to why God struck the area that he did.
It’s like they give you no other option but to play the race card; it’s not my fault it’s the only card this asshole deals.
he has a gay card, too. He played it after 9/11.
Mules are far too nice to be slandered so.
The Haitian Ambassador gave pat Robertson a history lesson:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/34851879#34851879
.
The last time Pat Robertson prayed for America, God got angry and bestowed
us George Bush. America shook on its foundation as was nearly destroyed.
False prophetThe Integration of Theory and Practice:
A Program for the New Traditionalist Movement by Eric Heubeck
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."Jeebus. It’s NOT “stupid”. It’s NOT “insensitive”. Robertson is NOT blind.
Robertson is MEAN and EVIL, and he says these things ON PURPOSE and DELIBERATELY with FULL knowledge of what he is saying.
Enough of these enabling blame-deflecting terms, please.
well, not having a clue when Haiti won independence or, conversely, when the French Revolution happened and led to the Napoleonic Wars, is stupid in my book.
At least, it’s stupid to not know those things and yet to go on television and demonstrate that you don’t know those things.
The point is not that he’s not stupid or insensitive or ignorant, but that those qualities pale into insignificance next to the fact that he’s batshit crazy and evil to his very core. If not for his mindless babble about “Jesus” he’d be on meds in some psych ward, but “faith” is the get-out-of-the-asylum card in our beloved idiocracy. Man, I’m sick of these pious assholes and the pious assholes that support them.
Here’s a question: Has Pat Robertson ever NOT been a total Asshat?
Pat Robertson should be imprisoned for wire fraud. He is so fatherly preacherlike that rich old biddies throughout the South especially send him large donations and encourage their offspring to do likewise. And for what?
This sort of hateful “ministry” and Pat’s endless quest to be better than his Senator dad.
He is a shyster, not a Christian.
Or he is a Christian. At least judging by the thundering silence from “mainstream” Christianity.
“Whatever you do to the least of my brothers, you do unto me.” Christ would vomit from his mouth the likes of Pat Robertson, a total hypocrite and self serving bastard. He is the ultimate scambola artist using the mask of Christianity to enrich his own pockets. He sounds so smug and know it all. God, what a disgrace he really is.
Just to be COMPLETELY fair and balanced. Napoleon was helped mightily in his decision to pursue the Louisiana Purchase/Sale by the fact that much of his army was wiped out by yellow fever in Haiti. Credit goes to the slave uprisers, but not necessarily all of it.
Now was God, looking to free the slaves, or the Devil, looking for souls, responsible for the mosquitoes and yellow fever?